A woman has been charged after “making fake bingo games” and taking about $8,000 from a bingo hall in Conway.
Officers responded to Millpond Bingo, located at 1412 Millpond Rd. in the Conway area, around 12:20 a.m. on Sunday for a report of a larceny, according to an incident report from the Conway Police Department. A responding officer observed a car leaving the parking lot with no head lights on and conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle. A suspect, identified in the report as 27-year-old Samantha Seleney Smith, was detained while other officers responded to the business.
Upon arriving at the business, officers determined “a strong armed robbery, kidnapping, malicious damage to property, and larceny had occurred,” says the release. The suspect, “who was a former employee, entered the premises where she went up to an employee, who owed her money, and asked for the money.”
“The employee became busy with customers and explained she did not have the money on her,” adds the report, “The employee then went to the bathroom and closed the door behind her.” The suspect reportedly followed her “and proceeded to kick the door open and went in after her. She then came out and went towards the office where she blocked the door and confronted two other employees and demanded money that was owed to her.” The suspect reportedly refused to let the employees out of the office by “blocking the door” and allegedly took about $30 from a wallet belonging to one of the employees, before walking out of the business.
According to another incident report from the CPD, an officer responded to Millpond Bingo around 10 p.m. on Nov. 18 for a report of a possible larceny. The complainant reported to police that she fired the suspect, identified as Smith, a few days before due to missing money. The complainant said she called police after going through papers and finding about $8,000 missing over the previous weeks.
Smith, who was an employee, “was making fake bingo games to show there was money paid out when there was not,” says the report. “Over time, she had taken approximately $8,000 in cash from the establishment. She was also found to be forging signatures of other employees to obtain some of the funds.”
According to J. Reuben Long Detention Center booking records, Smith was booked around 1 a.m. on Sunday and was released around 1 p.m. on Monday. She is charged with breach of trust/obtaining property under false tokens with a value of $5,000 or more; malicious injury to animals, personal property, injury value $2,000 to $10,000; common law robbery/strong arm robbery; and two counts of kidnapping.